Targeting pancreatic cancer cells with peptide-functionalized polymeric magnetic nanoparticles

Pancreatic cancer is a concealed and highly malignant tumor, and its early diagnosis plays an increasingly weighty role during the course of cancer treatment. In this study, we developed a polymeric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) nanoplatform for MRI contrast agents. To improve tumor-targeting delivery of MRI contrast agents, we employed a pancreatic cancer targeting CKAAKN peptide to prepare a peptide-functionalized amphiphilic hyaluronic acid–vitamin E succinate polymer (CKAAKN–HA–VES) for delivering ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO), namely, CKAAKN–HA–VES@USPIO. With the modification of the CKAAKN peptide, CKAAKN–HA–VES@USPIO could specifically internalize into CKAAKN-positive BxPC-3 cells. The CKAAKN–HA–VES@USPIO nanoparticles presented a more specific accumulation into pancreatic cancer cells than normal pancreatic cells, and an obvious decrease in signal intensity was observed in CKAAKN-positive BxPC-3 cells, compared with CKAAKN-negative HPDE6-C7 cells and non-targeting HA–VES@USPIO nanoparticles. The results demonstrated that our polymeric MRI nanoplatform could selectively internalize into CKAAKN-positive pancreatic cancer cells by the specific binding of CKAAKN peptide with pancreatic cancer cell membrane receptors, which provided a novel polymeric MRI contrast agent with high specificity for pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and makes it a very promising candidate for magnetic resonance imaging contrast enhancement.